THE SOURCES OF THE INDUS AND THE SATLEJ. 83
of the furthest source in Seng Tot or elsewhere, and the estimate of 5o miles for the remaining course depends upon native reports and conjecture.' It was Henry Strachey who mapped the upper half of the well-known 55o miles throughout Ladak; the lower half through Balti was mapped by Lieut. R. YOUNG. The first reliable knowledge was conquered by Moorcroft, TREBECK and VIGNE.
Henry Strachey discusses the problem of the sources of the »Langchen or Guge Satlej» in a most clever way.'
In fact, Strachey had to make his choice amongst several different sources, and as he did not know the country east of the ilanasarovar he leaves the question open. It is, however, curious that he could at all think of Gunchu-tso, although he knew that it had no active effluence. But he may have been misled by the information given by Gerard. He makes, however, a correct and strong difference between Gunchu-tso and the two other lakes: > The basin of the Langchen is lacustrine in its upper part, containing the Konkyu Lake in Horba without active effluence, and Tso I\lapham and Langnak in Kangri with a partial or intermittent one., 2 The great volume of water in the Satlej he explains from its comparatively southern situation. He could have explained the cause why the Gunchu-tso has been cut off earlier than Rakas-tal, if he had used his own physical law. For Gunchu-tso is situated nearer the dry plateau-land and fed from the border of Chang-tang, whereas the Manasarovar and Rakas-tal are fed from the snowy Himalaya. From the same cause Panggong-tso has been isolated at a much earlier date than the Satlej lakes, about which we even do not positively know whether they are going to be completely cut off at all. 3
I He says that these sources >-are somewhat complicated (as imperfectly known to us), lying between the Chukar (i. e. White River) from the Indian Himalaya on the S., the Ser-Chu (Gold River) or other streams from the mountains of Kangri on the N., and the effluence from the lakes Mapham and Langak on the E; the two first being permanent, and the last partial or intermittent; and besides these, there is the dormant drainage of the Horba basin, which stagnates in the Lake of Konkyu on the extreme S.E. The Chukar is said to be as large as the united river of Mensar (Misar) and Tirthapuri, when swelled by the melting of the Himalayan snow in summer; but we do not know whether it maintains this superiority on the average of the year, nor whether the intermittent contribution of the lakes be equal to the permanent affluence of the Ser-Chu, or other rivulets direct from the Kangri mountains ; but the difference in both cases is perhaps small. Measured from these various sources, the length of the Langchen will be — from the Darma Yankti head of the Chukar, about 23o miles; from the head of the Serchu, behind Kailash, 245 miles; from the furthest affluents of Manasarowar on the S. E., 255 miles, which includes about 45 of the interniittant lake drainage; and from the watershed of Maryum La, at the S. E. extremity of Horba, probably about 32o miles, including 65 miles for the dormant drainage of the Konkyu basin.» Ibidem p. 39.
z Ibidem, p. 36. At another place, p. 48 ibidem, he says what sounds as a contradiction, that the Gunchu-tso has no effluence , »yet no high ridge between it and the lakes of Kangri, and certainly belonging to the same system of drainage; the water salt.»
3 Strachey further gives the following information about the rivers of Ngari : »The river that carries the drainage of Nari-Mangyul and Utsang to the north-eastward is called by the Tibetans the Tachok Tsangspo, i. e. Horse River. The best of my Ladak informants could not assure me positively of its course below Lhasa, but assented fully to its identification with the main trunk of the Brahmaputra river, as asserted (and all but established) by the geographers of Bengal. The river which drains the greater part of Nest Nari to the north-westward, called by the Tibetans Senge-Tsangspo, i. e. Lion River, is now
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